Kremlin propaganda dilutes individual acts of defiance over Ukraine
You may have seen the video: a woman stands in the middle of Moscow’s Red Square holding up a piece of paper the size of a cigarette packet. It reads, “two words.” She looks nervous. “Will they arrest me?” she asks the person behind the camera. The answer comes seconds later, as six policemen in riot gear swoop into the shot, dragging the woman away towards police vans parked in the distance.
The “two words” on the woman’s tiny plaque is a reference to what Vladimir Putin doesn’t want any Russian to utter: “Nyet Voine,” or “No to War.” Calling the war in Ukraine anything but a “special operation” is now a crime in Russia, punishable by up to fifteen years in prison. And it is what happens next in that video that reveals the level of hysteria that has taken over Putin’s Russia.
As the first woman is dragged away, another walks into the shot. She begins to express her support for the war and for Putin, but before she even forms a sentence more police appear in the shot and drag her away too.
Videos like this, or that of Marina Ovsyannikova, a state TV employee who held up a “No to War” sign behind a presenter while live on air, are going viral, taking over headlines in the West. We find ourselves captivated by individual acts of defiance coming out of Russia. Can they add just enough pressure to Ukraine’s collective resistance to make a difference in this war?